Inside the outside
The Who’s Pete Townshend is deified among guitar players, respected by music critics and idolised by rock fans. It’s not as widely known that Mr Townshend was also a pioneering synthesist. An avid experimenter, the author of Tommy was a dab hand with patch pin and cable – he even starred in a number of adverts by American synth company ARP. Indeed, he was a proud owner of an ARP 2600 semimodular instrument and the larger, fully modular 2500, the latter on full display on the band’s Bargain from the album Who’s Next.
However, it was the smaller VCS 3 that appeared on the classic Won’t Get Fooled Again from the same LP. Here, Townshend came up with the idea of routing the band’s Lowrey organ through the EMS’s filter section, which in turn was modulated by an LFO.
A couple of years later, Brian Eno would pull the same gag on the first two Roxy Music albums, but here, virtually every instrument was given the VCS 3 treatment at some point during the proceedings. Cap’n Eno would try again in 1977, modulating Robert Fripp’s guitar on the title track from Bowie’s Heroes, and producing an enduring classic in the process.
These sorts of shenanigans are sadly overlooked by many synthesists, despite the fact that a number of classic synths sport filter inputs on their rear panels. Yet the idea of modular effects processing is the basis around which many classic effects devices are designed. Eventide’s popular (and costly) Ultra-Harmonizer series allows users to mix and match effects modules to create custom signal paths. Likewise for TC Electronics’ inspiring Fireworx box.
Software designers are clearly aware of the power to be had, and many virtual synthesisers may be instantatied as effects plugins. As it happens, our very own Freestyle CM from New Sonic Arts can be loaded as an effect, meaning any and all of our CM effects plugins can be utilised as one big modular processor!